https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 25 May 2026 21:48:43 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1270011 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:40:06 +0000 littlek 1270011@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The only thing you might be able to change with a different daycare is with one with a "no shoes" in the daycare room. I think the rest are pretty standard. I'm sorry your LO is sick... :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269983 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:29:39 +0000 mamimami 1269983@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't know about the rules BUT my son started preschool this year and he's sick ALL THE TIME. I asked the pediatrician if there was anything we could do and she put him on a month of this like preventive medicine called Broncho Vaxom. Google it and ask your pediatrician, it seems like it really could work based on the literature I found online. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269973 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:24:35 +0000 Adira 1269973@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Unfortunately, that all sounds normal to me. Our daycare doesn't have the no shoes policy and I think the infant room has 12-16 infants. I don't think they purposely let the babies share pacifiers, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were stealing from each other. And the toys get disinfected at the end of the day. The only difference with ours is that the rooms are separate and have doors so maybe not all the germs from everyone is getting everywhere?? But I'm sure people are going in and out of each room all day long, so I doubt the doors are doing much - I think they're just closed to prevent children from escaping, haha. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269954 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:15:17 +0000 dagret 1269954@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@travellingbee: my son is 10 months old and has been in daycare since 12 weeks. Knock on wood, but the worst he's had is a perpetual runny nose and 1 ear infection in all that time. </p> <p>Our daycare has 10-12 babies in the infant room, but all the kids are grouped by age. And the caregivers and parents wear shoes in the infant room, too. I've spent a lot of time in his room and have seen babies with other kids' pacis in their mouth; they clean toys at the end of the day but if one's like, covered in slobber they put it up until the end of the day. </p> <p>So our daycares sound pretty similar, except your son seems to be a lot sicker, unfortunately!</p> <p>ETA: In my state, they can't clip pacifiers to babies. It's a strangulation risk. And if they see a baby with the wrong pacifier, they take it off of them and wash it before giving it back to the right kid or put it back in the container. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269839 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:37:18 +0000 travellingbee 1269839@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mauxie: Not very at all. Kids are coughing and runny nosed all the time. No dr. notes required and they've given him tylenol (with our approval) for fever without sending him home before. Although it is slightly more convenient to not have to go pick him up at the slightest cough, I'd much rather a healthy child. I'm starting to think I need a nanny.<br /> @Torchwood: I so wish I lived nearby! I'd take you up on it! Houston is a bit of a commute from Nashville though. ;) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269804 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:25:01 +0000 mediagirl 1269804@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@travellingbee: sounds standard to me. The more expensive daycare centers around us have a no shoes policy in baby rooms. The ones we can afford do not. They clean after the day is over. When she first started there, I thought the teachers should clean a toy after a kid puts it in their mouth. Then I realized that was a pipe dream, I was just happy they were holding the babies and keeping them happy. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269792 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:21:15 +0000 Torchwood 1269792@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>So sorry to hear your poor baby is so sick! I have no input, but I'm a nanny in the Nashville area if you happen to be near here. ;) But seriously, I hope he feels better soon. That sounds awful. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269769 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:13:45 +0000 mauxie 1269769@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Aww, poor guy! You guys must be so stressed and finding a good daycare can be so hard! </p> <p>My LO has been in daycare since ~4 months and hasn't really had anything worse than a cold and conjunctivitis (no antibiotics needed). </p> <p>Our daycare is a large center, two infant classes of 12 each with 1:3 teacher ratio plus floaters who also help the other classrooms. Shared space for napping and eating. No shoes allowed (shoe covers), separate paci containers for each kid/labeled paci's.. Most kids only use them when napping anyway. They collect toys throughout the day to disinfect at closing time-- there are enough playthings to go around all day. Also no bouncers, jumpers, etc so it's all pretty much just being held and floor play. </p> <p>We've had notices of hand foot &amp; mouth, chickenpox, etc going around the center but my LO has never gotten it.. No ear infections, vomiting, etc. </p> <p>Is your daycare strict about sending kids home? For us, they pretty much send kids straight home at the first sign of illness and are very strict about Dr's notes for returning. </p> <p>Hope your baby gets well soon and you can all get some peace and rest! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269744 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:07:31 +0000 edelweiss 1269744@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>the shoes and pacifier thing sounds unusual to me, although i've only sent LO to one daycare. my friend's LO sounds similar to yours when he was younger--he was almost constantly sick (my friend carries her phone with her wherever she goes, including to work meetings because she's so used to getting a call from daycare to come pick him up--this is 4 year later). she eventually pulled him from daycare and got a nanny. it was rough. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269728 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:02:40 +0000 travellingbee 1269728@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Smurfette: They are but they just didn't notice that he grabbed it from someone else's mouth. I've personally caught it twice. Once he was sucking on someone else's and another time someone was sucking on his. I've stopped sending one for him. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269723 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:59:52 +0000 QueensBee 1269723@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@travellingbee: I'm sorry that he's still not sleeping and feeling well. :sad: </p> <p>Hmmm, I am in agreement with you and feel like the daycare could be doing more to prevent it. Our daycare has six babies in the infant room, although there are 6 more on the same floor. I know they clean every night but often it smells of cleaning product when I get there for pick up at 4pm so they may very well clean during the day too. And definitely no shoes allowed! Also, they clip the pacifiers onto the babies shirts so it would be highly unusual for babies to swap them. </p> <p>It's a tough call if you are happy with all other aspects of the daycare but yes, maybe a nanny or smaller facility would be better for the winter. Sorry you have to deal with this! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269715 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:55:43 +0000 Smurfette 1269715@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@travellingbee: I am so sorry he is sick again. Poor little dude!! </p> <p>There are up to 16 in our infant room. 4:1 ratio. Right now there are 10, I think, just got two more today. But there is a sticky mat right outside the door, so any dirt is trapped on that and not tracked into the room. They also don't let siblings into the room. If they have an older sibling, they have to dropped off first.<br /> I can't believe that they let him pick up another pacifier. Are they not labeled? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269710 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:53:01 +0000 doodlepoodle 1269710@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>There are no shoes allowed in the infant room at J's daycare, all binks have a way of identifying so they don't get mixed up (we put his initials on them), they send bedding home weekly to be washed, more often if there's an illness going around, and they clean during naps and disinfect after school. </p> <p>Sorry your LO Is sick :(0 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269702 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:50:01 +0000 Cchoi4 1269702@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My son is in the older classrooms at daycare (2.5 yrs old) but from what I can tell when I pass by the infant/baby rooms, there are:</p> <p>-no shoes in the rooms, hallways, gross motor rooms. In fact, everyone (parents, staff, kids) take off their shoes in the lobby. They can either walk barefoot, with socks, or with booties provided by the daycare</p> <p>I am unsure about the actual ratio of care providers to infants, but there are several "classrooms" and then everyone takes turns in the communal baby gross motor room (there is a separate gross motor room for 2-3 yr olds). I'm sure it gets wiped down at the end of everyday, but I don't think it is wiped throughout the day.</p> <p>Sorry to hear your LO is sick!! it's so stressful when they are. Perhaps you should look into other daycares just to see what your options are and whether a different daycare has differing policies on sickness/cleanliness.</p> <p>the pacifier thing would be alarming to me if it happened several times. If it was just once, then I'd chalk it up to "it happens" but several times, they need to have better monitoring. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269696 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:47:59 +0000 cascademom 1269696@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>It sounds normal to me. The whole family was sick for the first year of being in daycare. LO is in his second year of daycare. He's been sick twice now. We kept him out of daycare from Friday to today, so Friday and Monday. We thought it was best to keep him out of contact with the kids. I've almost dropped off LO coughing and been told to get him to the doctor. Then, we had our doctor write a note about the cold for her records.</p> <p>With this recent cold, we made the choice to keep him away from the kids. I'm hoping that tomorrow, he sounds better. It's been a brutal cold for him. DH is staying home with him today while I catch up at work after a crazy busy last week. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269605 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:18:16 +0000 sotofamilia 1269605@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't know if this helps, but this happened to my co-worker - she ended up having to pull her son from daycare after a few months because he was just constantly sick and she was missing a ton of work. She went on to have a nanny and started him early in pre-school. I hope your poor LO feels better soon! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269604 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:18:11 +0000 travellingbee 1269604@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@autumnlove: Thanks, so pretty similar. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269597 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:15:24 +0000 autumnlove 1269597@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@travellingbee: usually 9. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269592 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:14:35 +0000 travellingbee 1269592@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: @LuLu Mom: Maybe we need to go with a nanny then. I can't take him being this sick for so long! It's so sad! And we're so tired and frustrated! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269587 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:12:47 +0000 DillonLion 1269587@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That sounds like run of the mill daycare. My LO always has a sniffly nose/cough but nothing more serious than that besides a rando ear infection here and there. I am not sure changing daycares would help you. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269583 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:11:17 +0000 Mae 1269583@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't know about pacifiers, but our daycare doesn't allow any shoes in the infant rooms (or you can wear these sterile booty things over your shoes) and everything gets disinfected every day. Also there are only 8 babies per room with 2 teachers. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269578 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:09:40 +0000 travellingbee 1269578@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@autumnlove: Yeah I think the shoes thing bothers me. How many babies are in the infant room? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269577 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:09:21 +0000 LuLu Mom 1269577@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think the pacifier thing is very strange, but honestly it sounds like a pretty standard daycare. We have an inhome, so DD is surrounded by 6-8 kids every day. She disinfects the toys at night, but in all honesty kids are kids. My daughter tries to steal other's sippy cups and is always putting stuff in her mouth. It comes with the age. We don't use a pacifier so that is not an issue for us but kids are just germy creatures. I don't think that's your son's issue, he might just be one of htose kids who catches wahtever goes around (I'm still that person, it's no fun). :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269575 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:08:30 +0000 autumnlove 1269575@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>No shoes in the infant room and they disinfect everything at the end of the day.</p> <p>My LO started at 4 months and she was sick all the time until she was 13 months old. :-( It sucked. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-does-your-daycare-do-to-cut-down-germsaka-should-i-leave-our-daycare#post-1269559 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:04:45 +0000 travellingbee 1269559@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My son is almost 9 months old. For the first 5 months of his life, he didn't have as much as a sniffle. Then he started day care. He got a cold 3 days after he started that turned into croup. Since then, I have taken him to the doctor nearly once a week for illnesses. Croup, ear infections, nasty viruses, fevers, vomiting etc. He has been on antibiotics pretty much straight through since September. He finally got ear tubes put in on Thursday, but still has some gross cold he's had for 3 weeks. Last night, he was up ALL NIGHT coughing-- a new symptom. I'm losing my mind.<br /> Everyone laughs and says, "Yup, been there. It comes with day care!" But this seems excessive. I mean, he's been REALLY sick for months. We haven't slept in MONTHS. My husband is convinced it is the day care he goes to. His points are:<br /> There are too many babies in one room. (The ratio is still low but there are 10 all in one room sharing toys etc, and the whole school is "open concept" so air born illness can travel between the rooms)<br /> There are no rules about pacifiers or adults wearing shoes. I have several times found my son sucking on a pacifier he stole from another baby's mouth. :( And the adults walk around where the babies are crawling and germs from the shoes must get on the floor and toys.<br /> They disinfect toys at the end of the day, but no one is cleaning them throughout the day.</p> <p>So. Does this sound like your daycare or are they taking precautions that ours is not? I am wondering if we should pull him midyear and try to get a nanny or get him in somewhere else. </p> <p>Sorry for the novel. Thanks for your help, Bees! </p>